It's not just smugglers who're after kher
Despite 'kher' being among the rare tree species in Gujarat and there being a total ban on its felling, it is not just smugglers who are keen to exploit it while it lasts. Surprisingly the state-owned Gujarat State Forest Development Corporation is planning to cash in as well, with a …
A tree project helps the genes of champions live on
Only about 3 percent of America's native old-growth forest remains, and many of the trees they hold are those that were not big enough to attract a logger's eye. The result is a generation of trees that barely resemble the native forests that once blanketed the country. That makes some …
Teesta project
The work on the 510 mw Rs 2,500 crore Teesta hydel project (Stage V) in Sikkim is expected to be completed on schedule in February, 2007, a top company official said.
Campaign against forest encroachment
An all-out campaign to remove forest encroachment is to be initiated in Kailali district of Nepal through the joint efforts of all sectors concerned.
Pristine Congo rain forest spared from logging
A Congo Republic rain forest rich in rare animals and trees, described by scientists as the most pristine rain forest left in Africa, will be protected from logging under a deal announced last week. Under a deal with the Congo government, timber company Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB) said it …
India road plan would cost 28,000 trees
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's project to link the entire country by highway would result in the felling of about 28,000 trees in the eastern state of Bihar, a federal minister said. "According to our survey, 28,000 trees will have to be chopped down to construct 205 kms (127.4 …
France's tree avenues under threat
The classic French image of a twin row of plane trees stretching across the countryside is in danger of disappearing because of mounting claims that they are to blame for the country's high death rate on the roads. The avenues, for three centuries a cherished part of the rural landscape, …
Noida Authority denies knowledge of tree felling on Deader Road
Noida Authority staff have, in the recent weeks, reportedly chopped down several hundred trees without proper authorisation. The trees have been felled on and along the road leading from Sector 14-A to Amity International School. Several dozen trees were reportedly cut down at the Sector 40-Noida - Deader Road crossing.
Is the forest minister's son involved in kher wood smuggling?
It is a bombshell which the Gujarat forest department is finding too hot to handle. The disclosure bby an inter-state gang of kher wood (catechu) smugglers who were caught in Vadodara 10 days back that they were acting at the behest of forest minister Kanjibhai Patel's son Sunil has sent …
CM to discuss Vruksh Utsav with district collectors
Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel will hold a dialogue will all district collectors and administrators from the Satellite Studio of Remote Sensing and Communication Centre (RESECO) with a view to provide necessary guidelines for the effective implementation of "Vruksh Utsav-2001" beginning from July 6.
German loggers to leave 'African Eden' untouched
In a move that wildlife biologists say has spared an African Eden, a German logging company said yesterday that it had given up its lease on a tract of swamp-fringed rain forest in the Congo Republic. The Congo government said the land, the 100-square-mile Goualogo Triangle, would be added to …
Plan to save our beeches
The State Government in Victoria (Australia) is preparing a plan of action to control the spread of myrtle wilt, a fatal fungal disease affecting myrtle beech, the dominant tree in endangered cool temperate rainforests. However, it will not revisit the contentious issue of buffers to protect rainforest from logging, saying …
Sheer wastage of funds and saplings
The Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has miserably failed in the sapling plantation at most of the places, even after the criminal wastage of huge funds allocated for the purpose.
Call to check forest encroachment
A study team that recently made an on-the-site-inspection of the eastern part of Banke district (Nepal) has pointed out that security organs and administration should be mobilised together to control the growing encroachment in the forest areas.
Plea to rise royalty on trees
Resentment prevails among private forest owners over the rates of royalty fixed by the state Forest Corporation, denying the tree owners a "reasonable" return for their produce. The price of the forest produce is never fixed in accordance with the state Forest Produce (Regulation of Trade) Act despite directions from …
Mayor launches 'Hasiru Maasa' to restore City's lost greenery
Mayor Prema Cariappa today gave the 'green signal' to 'Hasiru maasa' a month-long programme initiated by Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) with an objective of bringing back the past green glory to the city - by planting a sapling along Hosur Main Road near Madivala today.The BMP has aimed to plant …
Van mahotsav between July 16-18
The Gujarat government has decided to celebrate the 52nd van mahotsav-to be observed between July 16 to July 18-as Narmada Vruksh Utsav-2001, and has chalked out plans to distribute 18 crore saplings.
Lonely tree can use 'surrogate mother' to produce
One of the world's oldest and rarest trees, a desert species of which just 231 are left, is able to use a "surrogate mother" from another species in its drive to survive, French scientists report.The Saharan cypress, specimens of which have lived up to 4,700 years, was once plentiful in …
Chop the trees and smuggle the timber
Last month, the West Bengal forest minister had said south Bengal was immune to timber smuggling. The menace existed only in Jalpaiguri. He was obviously been blind to the rampant smuggling just outside Kolkata, on Jessore Road.
Forest officials address unusual uses of land
By statute, and by roadside proclamation, the national forests, that vast empire of public lands that stretch across one-twelfth of the United States, are lands of "many uses,"including logging, ranching, hunting, skiing and camping. But time has stretched that definition to thelimit.
